Many children's stories and nursery rhymes relate to horrific things, like "Ring a Ring o' Roses," a rhyme about London's Great Plague. Some of these horrific tales do some good, whilst scaring our kids, by teaching them important life lessons. Others cause children to have terrifying nightmares.

The following are five examples of terrifying children's stories, which still scare kids today.

1

'The Girl Who Trod on the Loaf' by Hans Christian Andersen

Andersen loved writing tales about naughty girls and their punishments. In this case, a poor girl became conceited after getting a better life. When she went to visit her poverty-stricken mother through the mud, she dropped the loaf of bread for her family and stood on it to keep her shoes clean. She was sucked into the mud and is taken to Hell, where she becomes a statue and goes through several horrific torments, while listening to her mother crying and people telling her how horrible she was.

2

'The Hobyahs' collected by SV Proudfit

A brave little dog named Turpie kept barking at night as the Hobyahs came out of the forest to his elderly owner’s hut. The old man threatens the poor dog with dismemberment each day for his barking. Eventually he cuts off Turpie’s head and the barking ceases leading to the owners’ demise. The story had illustrations of the poor dog’s dismembered parts, which had only tried to protect his owners from the Hobyahs.

Freelance writer and travel writer, citizen journalist and all-round self-employed person formerly living in southern Africa (Malawi, Rhodesia and South Africa), now living in La Cala de Mijas on the Costa del Sol in Spain.

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